Why Filming Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns Made Sig Hansen Miss Alaska

For fans who have been following Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" over the years, there are plenty of constants that can be relied on. For example, you can rest assured there will be bad weather, struggles to hit quotas, and enjoyable back-and-forth banter between deckhands, just to name a few. Another constant is, of course, that the fishing will take place off the coast of Alaska. However, recent factors have caused the Alaskan red crab industry to shut down for the season, causing captains like Sig and Mandy Hansen to search for this elusive shelled income elsewhere. For Sig, as much as he's able to adjust to the change, he still prefers to work on the Bering Sea.

Due to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closing the red crab season for 2021 — something that hasn't happened for 25 years — the Hansens were forced to fill in that income gap by trekking across the globe to their home country of Norway. Although this business move seems stressful and unfortunate, both he and his daughter Mandy were gifted a Discovery spinoff series, "Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns," to chronicle this sudden change of scenery. "There was a lot of challenges, a lot of new events that happened for us," Sig told Park City Television. "It was quite exciting for these new beginnings."

Most fans who have already watched "Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns" surely got to witness this entertaining combination of excitement and uncertainty, which are both key ingredients that help make the original series so great. However, despite a new show and plenty of reasons to celebrate a successful location shift, Sig still has his reasons why he prefers to fish off the Alaskan coast.

For the first time in 25 years, the red king crab fishing season was completely canceled by Alaskan authorities. And although this was a major blow to every crab-pulling vessel on the Bering Sea, Sig and Mandy Hansen used this event as a reason to head back home to Scandinavia, Norway to supplement this lost income. And although this resulted in the Hansens scoring a new spinoff series, Sig explained why filming in Norway made him miss Alaska. And that reason simply boils down to territorial familiarity.

When it comes to having the knowledge to navigate the Bering Sea to find masses of catchable crab, Sig is among the best of them. "Not to sound arrogant or anything, but when it comes to Alaska and the Bering Sea, I kind of know that ocean like the back of my hand," he said in an interview with Headliner Chicago. "I mean, I've got like a chart in my brain. I know where I'm going to go, what I'm going to do, even before a season starts." And as was shown in the new spinoff series, this vast knowledge Sig usually has to map out a game plan went right out the window when entering brand-new territory.

Despite stepping thousands of miles away from their comfort zone, Sig and Mandy quickly adapted to their new crab-catching surroundings. In fact, it wasn't only the waters that changed, but also the bounty itself, as "Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns" sees the co-captains catch a newly discovered species, Troll Crab. So, despite the closure pushing many captains to other industries, Sig and Mandy Hansen have proven that a drastic adjustment can end up resulting in success.